banned from holding property and voting in elections. >> susan b. anthony dedicated her life to reform. >> suffrage in the middle of the 19th century accomplished one goal, it was diametrically opposed to this idea. >> many feared it would be corrupted by politics. >> women in the 19th century had to convince male voters that having the vote would not change anything. that woman would still be devoted to the home, the family, that they would remain pure and innocent, that having the vote would not corrupt them.

>> support gradually grew in state and local campaigns. >> leaders like ellen clark sgt come repeatedly stopping these meetings -- , repeatedly stopping these meetings as a politically active figure. doing everything they could to ground the campaign in domesticity. >> despite their efforts, the link made it tough whenever voters were in the big city. a specialist in francisco. >> the problem with san francisco is that women's suffrage as an idea was

associated. >> susan b. anthony joined the provision party. a deadly idea in san francisco. liquor was the foundation of the economy. and >> anything that touched on the possibility of prohibition was greatly and popular. >> the first campaign was a great effort, but not a success. >> the war was not over. less than one decade later, a graphic protests brought new life to the movement. >> women's suffrage, the republican convention in oakland, this time it was the private sector response. 300 marched down the streets of

the convention center. women were entitled to be here. >> joining together for another campaign. >> women opened a club in san francisco. it was called the votes for women club. if she could get the shopkeepers to have lunch, she could get them to be heard literature. the lunch room was a tremendous success. >> it was the way that people thought about women willing to fight for a successful campaign.

what happened was, the social transformation increase the boundary of what was possible, out word. >> there were parades and rallies, door to door candidacies, reaching every voter in the state. >> the eyes of the nation were on california in 1911, when we all voted. it was the sixth and largest state in the nation to approve this. one decade later, we have full voting rights in the united states. helping newly enfranchised women, a new political movement was founded. >> starting in the 1920's, it was a movement created by the suffragettes moving forward to

getting the right to vote. all of the suffragettes were interested in educating the new voters. >> non-partisan, not endorsing candidates >> -- endorsing candidates, getting the right to vote and one they have their voice heard. >> the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage is taking place throughout the state. bancroft library is having an exhibit that highlights the women's suffrage movement, chronicling what happened in california, bringing women the right to vote. >> how long does this mean going on? >> the week of the 20th.

people do not realize that women were allowed to vote as early as the 1920's. in the library collection we have a manuscript from the end of december, possibly longer. >> in commemoration of 100 years of voting in california. 100 years ago this year, we won the right to vote. around 1911, this is how it would have addressed. and here we are, dressed the same.

[chanting] >> we have the right to vote. >> whether you are marching for a cause or voting in the next election, make your voice heard. thank you for watching.

so are you going out tonight? i can't. my parents say i have to be home right after work. ugh. that's so gay. totally gay. ugh. that is so emma and julia. why are you saying, "that's so emma and julia"?

well, you know, when something is dumb or stupid, you say, "that's so emma and julia." who says that? everyone. announcer: imagine if who you are were used as an insult. >> so it's a tremendous honor to be here today. we've got a tremendous program for you. this is our annual black

history month kickoff. it was started many, many years ago. dr. carter g. woodson had participated in the founding of black history month. he was involved in the group known as the oh, -- association for the study of african-american life and history. the local chapter of that group is what is now known as the african-american cultural and historical society. so it's an honor. we've been doing this for many, many years and it's great to see so many faces out here today. right now what i'd like to do is thank our partners and acknowledge them for their participateation. the san francisco public library much the california cultural arts program and we couldn't do it without the good folks in the mayor's office of neighborhood services.

what i'd like to do now is strue -- shall truce -- intro duce tanish hollins from the mayor's office of neighborhood services. >> good amp, family. happy black history month. could we hear it one more time? [applause] >> we are so honored to be here. we look forward to this every year. it's a hall mark event for the city and county of san francisco. an opportunity to reflect on the many, many contributions of african-americans in this city and how each of us has changed the gee graval and cultural landscape of this city. how fitting that we celebrate black history month today, which is also the same as lunar new year and also an opportunity -- opportunity to reflect on the diversity of this city and how happy we are

to be in a city which is so inclussive. so without forth delay i would like to welcome you on behalf of mator's office of neighborhood services. mayor lee will be joining us later. with the invocations, we would like to invite pastor stacey kerns. >> good amp. let us pause for a moment to invite the presence of god. shall we pray together? god, our help in ages past, our hope in years to come, we invite your holy presence to bless this celebration of african-american history month. we give up thanks and praise for the legacy, the creativity, the genius and contributions of african-american people everywhere. we pray that you would strengthen this organization and strengthen all organizations that support telling the story of black history.

and so today we ask that as we continue on the journey. that we might be able to do justice, love kindness, and walk hummably -- humbly with our god. may you bless this time together and all god's children say amen, amen, amen. >> and now if you would stand for "lift every voice and sing," sung by leah suites. >> ok. everyone can join in with me. ♪ lift every voice and sing ♪ tell up in heaven rings ♪ rings with a harmony of

liberty ♪ ♪ let our rejoicing rise high as the listening sky ♪ ♪ let every sound loud as a roar -- rolling sea ♪ ♪ sing a song full of the faith that the horde has brought -- brought us ♪ ♪ sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us ♪ ♪ facing the rising sun of a new day begun ♪

♪ let us march on to victory ♪ ♪ as one [applause] >> thank you. i'm al williams, president of the board of the san francisco african-american historical society. we'd like to join, and trevor, in welcoming you all to this annual 2011 kickoff program for black history month. first of all i'd like to say that the chairs to my right are vacant and will be filled shortly. the mayor will be arriving about 11:30. he had another engagement that he was they'd at. and supervisors -- he was delayed at. and supervisors -- no, that's

not them -- miracle arim aye and coyne are in committee and i understand they will be finishing up shortly and then they will be joining us to bring greetings. i want to thank pastor curran and ms. suites for their participation in the program. and ms. suites with her wonderful voice, we use this program as an opportunity to present cameos of people who are otherwise engraged shall -- engaged in black history month programs and ms. suites is going to be appearing next tuesday, february 8 at yoshii's. and of course pastor is appearing weekly and a couple times sunday at jones united methodist church. so let's certainly visit and support her at jones united

memorial methodist church. i'd like to take a moment to thank the members of the committee for their support and participation. as i always say, something like this cannot happen without a committee of people involved. with us today, trevor hunnicut, who started the program off, who say member of the board of drorves the society. lamont bishop is a stalwart member -- where are you? in the back. he's a represent of senator mark leno's office. b.j. jones from public utilities commission is here. stewart. from the public library. and pete fitzsimmons and tannish col -- hollins and camille dawkins. camille is over here. without camille and tannish rkt

, none of this happens. so let's give them a round of applause for their wonderful effort. the society's primary mission is to enlighten, to inform, to inspire and to empower. we achieve that mission in a variety of ways. almost always in partnership with others. through our current partnership that trevor spoke to with the finance -- kinsey foundation shall the san francisco public library, and the california council of the humanities, we are now hosting an incredible exhibition of art and artifacts from the kinsey collection, the kron -- that chronicles the story of people of frick desnent america. if you haven't done so you owe it to yourself and particularly to your children to visit and see this important exhibit which is at our library in the frake american -- african-american art and

culture complex at 762 bolton street. the posters you see here are examples of elements in that exhibit. these are actual objects that are part of the kinsey collection that are on display in our exhibit. bernard i'm sure will touch on the collection during his remarks. our speaker, bernard kinsey, is one half of team kinsey. the other half is his lovely wife shirley, so please join me in welcoming shirley kinsey who is with us today also. stand up, shirley. now, my notes go on to say that a few years ago we had a wonderful opportunity to work with supervisors mirkarimi and are lee on the adoption of san francisco's slavery disclosure ordinance and we're looking forward to having is the same kind of experience with

supervisor coyne as she moves forward in legislation with us the we're very excited about that undertakele -- taking. that was supposed to lead to a nice little smooth transition for them to make remarks. since they are not here -- somebody's coming, i'm told. on cue, supervisor coyne, right on cue is here. supervisor malia cohen, ladies and gentlemen. >> thank you. hello. happy black history month. -- month. how are you good. thank you for coming out here this morning. i'm so excited to be here. there have been many years that have come and gone in the past that i was in these seats over here listening to the speakers commemorate, honor the memory

and legacy of many of our an set of erps and the persons that have gone on before us and it is about time that we started to think about the legacy that african-americans have had and the legacy that the civil war has had and the intermingling between the two because it is with no easy feat that over 200,000 african-american soldiers fought in the civil war during a time when african-americans were denied the right of course their citizenship. can you imagine that? so i'm very excited to welcome you here to our great city hall. and as i stand before you, i want you to understand that i am your represent and if you have a chance to stop by before you leave and leave your

contact information, so we are able to better communicate and keep the lines of communication open. ed high -- the high -- rm importance of plaque history months also reminds us of the power of all americans united and working together. oftentimes with the census data that's been released people have been spending a lot of time lamenting that the african-american pop lakes is at 3.9% and i am really here to encourage you that our numbers may be diminishing but we are also here, present and we are still strofpblgt we don't need to have huge numbers but we must remain engaged in order to make sure to we remain relevant. the last two years have been a meaningful time for all of us with obama in the administration. i'm personally very proud of the work that he has done, that

we have done here in san francisco among a wide array of voters and to be elected by what many consider the last batchtyon of president african-american community in after, it is a special honor to be here today buff. thank you very much. >> thank you, supervisor. supervisor mirkarimi is here with us but before he calms -- comes up -- comes up i want to mention ralph lewin, with the california huh-uh -- humanities council here with us also. we have a number of other elected and appointed officialed and at i said to them earlier, i was ansigned the task of introducing -- i was ansigned the tasking introducing them and don't have the list but i was specifically threatened bim dr. torea moses

if i didn't many introduce him. ing [laughter] or without further ado, supervisor ross mirkarimi. >> i'll make my statements we -- very quick. i just came out of charing the public safety committee meeting. there's a lot be to talk about. i want to say another happy congratulations on black history month here in san francisco. this has been i think a very auspicious haft few months of course in seeing the ascendancy of our district attorney, kamela harris, rise to attorney general in the state of california. certainly of course ases to the

incredible impact of advancing the issues much import to all of us, joining the board, supervisor malia cop henn. and we continue to see great challenges, nationally and internationally and president obama and his quarterback effort to continue to retain as best he can as republicans allow him to, our continued enthusiasm for his ongoing leadership. but in san francisco, reference has been made to this earlier, why we do celebrate many of the advancements of people who rise to positions of power and stature is certainly well noticed, i think we also have to use this opportunity, black history month, to retrench on a couple of key points. one is we have to be very clear about the fact that if he -- if

we really want to speak to the question, i think, of black edoseous from a cosmopolitan city like san francisco, then we also must speak to the questions of what are we going to do about the hi recidivism rate in california so that there is meaningful rell entry and reintegration back into our communities? what are we going to did to he will everybody ain't the standards of our public schools so that the truancy and dropout rate is stemmed so that the kids can stay in school and be? school. these are the opportunities i hear as we celebrate black history month, especially the residents of the fillmore and the western addition, as people know it in both ways, that has struggled through decade of urban renewal and through its own chals that we're reminded here in the city of san